After quitting my work in May'17 in the aspiration to give full effort to my MBA applications, I was blessed with an admit from, the only b-school I applied, EDHEC Business School in Nice, France on 19th July for the Jan'18 session. Which means I will have 4 months from then to strike out as much as places in India from my bucket list before I depart. Leh-Ladakh was not in the list as I was not much amused by it and any place that is famous and crowdy will never get my interest to explore. But that was only until I attended the below seminar; a habit I have that keeps gives me new thoughts, ideas and motivation.
Not only did Shri. G. Ramkumar explain the hardships to overcome the altitude problem in setting up the world's highest LPG gas station in Leh-Ladakh, but also he showed the exemplary landscapes and explained the holiness with his very own experiences. Particularly his Indus river experience ignited me. I had just developed a fantasy to take a dip and pic in major rivers of India after doing so in Krishna and Brahmaputra in my earlier trips. I could feel a connection with nature when I did, particularly the major holy ones. And that was it, I decided Leh-Ladakh is the first place I am going!!
August went just like that with the French classes, admission formalities, and the trip planning. September came, I had asked all I know, posted in facebook travel groups, created events in travel and event meetup social media, but none to join me and I did not want to do this alone, I did not know Hindi too.
Sep12, one last person who I was hoping to join me, ditched me. That is when I pressed the panic button to call all the bike rentals and operators in Manali and find out if there was any group going and I could join them--inspired by an idea that came as comment to one of my posts somewhere in fb asking me to go to Manali directly, find a group and join.
I finished calling 17-19 people by 12AM that day. None of them had a group going as they mentioned it was off-season already and few even warned me not to go as the climate have already become worse. When one guy advised me to do it next year, I explained him my desperateness that this could be my last chance to go there as this I may not return to India for some years and even if I return I might not have this freedom, lack of commitment, energy and finance to make it happen. Also with the increasing tensions in the border, there could be no access in future.
After 2 hours I got this call from a guy, Amar, he said one of the people I had called earlier had given my number to him as he is taking a group of 3 to Leh from Manali on 16th and asked me if I could join them. I was thrilled!! Just when I thought I should wind up this plan and look for an alternative. Amar is organising the entire trip for the Kerala guys from Dubai and it costs 43k for the entire package that includes bikes, accommodation, food, backup jeep, a mechanic. I told him clearly that I could not afford that much but I will take only the bikes from him, the others I can take care of my own on the way and I needed their company. His English was good and he sounded a genuine person. Still, I had to cross check his phone number and his website http://dustytrail.in to authenticate before I confirmed my participation to him. Booking tickets, informing people was the rest of the day's work for what I did not know was the upcoming most mind-blowing, adventurous and god blessed days of my life!!
